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COOLING RACK FOR BENT WOODEN BOWS. No. 271,584. Patented Feb. 6,1883.

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consumer RACK FOR No. z7 BENT WOODEN BOWS.

Patented Feb. 6, 1883.

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\VILSON ALDRICH, OF SHORTSVILLE, NEW YORK.

COOLING-RACK FOR BENT WOODEN BOW S.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 271,584, dated February 6, 1883.

Application filed June 7, 1882. (Model.)

To all whom it may concern Be it known thatI, WILSON ALDRICH, a citizen of the United States, residing at Shortsville, in the county of Ontario and State of New York, have invented a new and useful device for the purpose of securely holding fellies and other bent timber in proper shape after bending and while cooling, and for the further purpose of permitting the forms to be immediately removed from the bent timber without waiting for it to cool, that I have named the said device an Adjustable Cooling-Rack, and the following is a specification thereof.

It being the tendency of all newly-bent timber to straighten and spring into irregular shape, it is usually allowed to remain upon the form until it has cooled; but being eonfined between the strap and form it necessarily requires a long time to cool sufficiently so that it can be packed in bundles. Therefore it requires a large number of forms (usually not less than fifty) to keep an ordinary machine in continual operation.

Hence the object of my invention is to provide an adjustable rack, so constructed as to hold fellies or other bent timber of any size or circle in the same shape after the form has been removed, as it was in when fastened to the form, and at the same time by immediately removing the forms the timber will cool much more quickly than it otherwise would; and, again, by thus being able to quickly remove the forms a less number of them is required to do the same amount of bending in a given time. Ten forms of any one size are sufficient, where the adjustable rack is usedin connection with them, to keep any ordinary bending-machine in constant operation.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a view of an adjustable cooling-rack unfolded and ready to receive the forms with the bent timber strapped to them as it comes from the bending-machine. Fi 2 is a view of the rack with the forms and bent timber placed upon it before folding and clamping. Fig. 3 is a view of the rack clamped upon the forms with the bent timber, and ready for the removal of the forms from the timber. Fig. 4 is a view of the rack holding the bent timber and straps with the forms removed. Fig. 5 shows the adjustable clamping-hook.

Similar letters refer to like parts throughout the different views.

A A is the bed or frame of, the rack. It

should be made of wood, but may be made of other materials, and for convenience it may be mounted upon small wheels. This frame is made'of sufiicient length to hold as many forms as may be desired. In my experience, ten is the best number of forms to be provided with; but a greater or less number than that can be conveniently and effectively used. The width of this bed or frame should be varied according to the size of the circle of the bent timber, so that nearly one-third the length of the timber will fall between the two side pieces of the frame when it (the bent timber) is placed thereon, as shown in the drawings; but a width of twenty-eight inches will do for all ordinarysizes of felly-tiniber.

In the center of the end pieces of the frame are bolt-holes aa and bolts P P, which pass through the said end pieces of the frame and form pivots for .the arms 0 O O G to work upon, said arms having each one or more holes, 0 c, for the bolts P P for the purpose of adjusting the length of the arms so as to correspond with different sizes of forms. The arms 0 O O G at their outer ends are rigidly attached to clamping-bars B B, which, in Fig. 3, are shown drawn up near the ends of the bent timber F, and when fastened by the adjustable clamping-hooks E E E form two bearings for the ends of the bent timber at or just above the center of the arc of the circle described by the timber, while the frame forms two other bearings, thus'making four firm bearings at nearly equal distances irom each other, so that if the forms are removed from-the timber immediately after bending, and while it is steaming hot, yet the timber, being thus clamped, will be firmly held in position and forced to retain perfectly the bend or shape imparted to it by the forms until it has cooled. The clamping-barsB B should be made ofgas-pipe, but of course may be made of solid iron, wood, or any other material suitable for the purpose.

The clamping-hooks E E E are rods of iron with an open hook at one end, made so as to hook on the clamping-bar B B; but they are so constructed as to be easily unhooked when desired. The opposite ends of these clamping-rods are threaded for the hook-nuts Gr, shown in Fig. 5. These hook-nuts are also threaded for the purpose of enabling the operator to readily adjust the clamping books or bars E E E to any length corresponding with the size of the bent timber to be placed in the rack, and they are also provided with arms extending forward and at the ends downward and at right angles, thus forming adjustable hooks for the other ends of the clamping-bars E E E. These clamping-hooks E E E may of course be made of one solid bar of iron or other suitable material without the adjustable nut, when the timber is all to be bent upon the same forms and of a uniform size, and it is therefore unnecessary to change the length of the clamping-hooks.

Experience has demonstrated thatfour racks are all that are required for any ordinary bending-machine, and that the cost of their manufacture is about equal to that of two ordinary forms, so that four racks, used in connection with ten forms, will give to the bending-machine the same capacity for constant or continual work, which, under the old methods, could only be given it by fifty forms.

Having thus fully described my invention, whatl desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. In an adjustable cooling-rack, the combination of a horizontal rectangular base-frame of preferred materials and dimensions, having centrally through each end horizontal pivotholes, arms, preferably four in number, and in length approximately the inside width of the base-frame, furnished at one end with one or more pivot-holes, two horizontal clampingbars, each of them being rigidly fixed to the movable ends of two of the said arms at opposite ends ot' the said frame, and transverse terminally-hooked rods to retain said arms and bars in operative position, all adapted to keep nation of the perforated base-frame A A, of

sufficient width to furnish on its inner sides two suitable bearing-points for the periphery of the bent timber, each point being distant from the ends of said timber about one-third its length, the arms 0 C C 0, having two or more adjacent pivot-holes, 0 0, near one end for longitudinal adjustment, articulated by pivots P P to the ends of the base-frame A A, the working ends of said arms being rigidly connected to the ends of the horizontal clampingbars B B--to wit, arms 0 G to bar B and arms 0 C to bar B, respectively-each pair of arms and its bar forming a clamping-frame movable from a horizontal to a vertical position on the pit'ots P P, and being adjustable, so that the bars B B, when in operative position, will bear against the bent timber just above the horizontal diameter of the circle of which. the tim ber forms an arc, and the rods E E, hooked at both ends or at one end only, the other end being threaded to receive the hooked nuts G G to secure longitudinal adjustment of the rods E E, all constructed in the manner and for the purposes herein set forth.

3. In a cooling-rack, the combination of the base-frame A A, pivot-holes a a, pivots P P, arms C O C C, with perforations 0 cc 0, clamping-bars B B, hooked rods E E, and hooked nuts Gr Gr, substantially as described.

WILSO) ALDRICH.

Witnesses A. L. DEWEY, CHAs. A. DARLING. 

